Fire Upon Thine Altar
Leviticus 6:13 The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.
The bible tells us that ... “the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” This text in Leviticus is one of those probing texts, that cuts through the image we present to others and shows us what we truly are. It is a text that is like the letting down of the anchor that probes the oceans bottom below, and gives a wise captain knowledge of the depth of the passageway beneath his ship. Even as a sailor would call out in ancient days, “20 fathoms, captain! 15 fathoms, captain! 10 fathoms captain!”, this text will sound you out. It will echo and resonate in the corridors of your heart and ask of thee, “Hast thou left thy first love?”
This text is a probing one. It asks of thee, “is there fire upon the altar of thine heart.” “Of what quality is it?” “Is there anything that obscures it?” “Of what intensity level does it burn?” “Is it a flickering flame, smoldering flax, a glowing coal, or a roaring inferno?”
It will cause you to examine the state of the fire upon thine altar, and it gives you a standard by which it must be judged, “it shall be ever burning.” The word burning can cover a lot of different meanings from smoldering to blazing inferno. The Hebrew word translated burning is, “yaw kad.” The depth and intensity of its meaning is exemplified by this passage in Deuteronomy 32:22, where God is expressing His anger at the Jews for worshipping false Gods, and not having faith in Him, “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” It speaks of a consuming fire,
This text separates those who are spiritually pretense from those who are spiritually intense. It is like the question the demon’s asked of the seven sons of Sceva, “Paul, we know, Jesus we know, but who are you?” It is the amount, and intensity of fire upon your spiritual altar that answers that question better than any other. It cannot be answered by the fire you once had, or the fire you recently had, as deep calls out to deep it searches your being for its own echo. Your fire has to answer its question.
This text is both a commandment and an encouragement. As a commandment it tells of God’s requirement, as an encouragement it implies God’s help in the matter. It is a commandment, which speaks of man’s solemn obligations in the matter. It is an encouragement in that, since it is a commandment of God, God will provide the necessary grace to see that we are able to fulfill it. For He is the only source of the fire He commands we have.
Sometimes it only takes a spark to get a fire going. Here are some sparks from others, and from the Word itself, I trust they will wet your appetite to be alive with the presence and power of God, and that they will help kindle fresh, “Fire Upon Thine Altar.”
Kindled From On High; by William Arthur
It is only by waiting before the throne of grace that we become endued with the Holy Fire. He who waits there long and believingly will imbibe that Fire and come forth from his communion with God bearing tokens of where he has been. The only way to gain spiritual power is by secret waiting at the throne of God for the enduement.
If you would have your soul kindled with the Fire of God you must draw near to the source of that Fire, to the throne of God and of the Lamb, and shut yourself out from the world - that cold world which so swiftly steals our Fire away. Enter into your closet and shut the door and there, isolated before the throne, await the Fire. It will fill you and when you come forth, holy power will attend you and you shall labor not in your own strength but “in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power” (1 Cor. 2:4).[1]
Unction by E. M. Bounds
This unction comes to the preacher not in the study but in the closet. It is heaven’s distillation in answer to prayer. It is the sweetest exhalation of the Holy Spirit. It impregnates, suffuses, softens, percolates, cuts, and soothes. It carries the Word like dynamite, like salt, like sugar; makes the Word a soother, an arranger, a revealer, a searcher; makes the hearer a culprit or a saint, makes him weep like a child and live like a giant; opens his heart and his purse as gently, yet as strongly as the spring opens the leaves. This unction is not the gift of genius. It is not found in the halls of learning. No eloquence can woo it. No industry can win it. No prelatical hands can confer it. It is the gift of God -- the signet set to his own messengers. It is heaven’s knighthood given to the chosen true and brave ones who have sought this anointed honor through many an hour of tearful, wrestling prayer.[2]
Charles Spurgeon commenting on Leviticus 6:13
The text will also apply to the altar of the heart. This is a golden altar indeed. God loves to see the hearts of his people glowing towards himself. Let us give to God our hearts, all blazing with love, and seek his grace, that the fire may never be quenched; for it will not burn if the Lord does not keep it burning. Many foes will attempt to extinguish it; but if the unseen hand behind the wall pour thereon the sacred oil, it will blaze higher and higher. Let us use texts of Scripture as fuel for our heart’s fire, they are live coals; let us attend sermons, but above all, let us be much alone with Jesus.
Leonard Ravenhill
“I believe that tonight the world is going to hell fire because the church has lost Holy Ghost fire, it’s as simple as that.”
“Tell me how much time you spend alone with God and I will tell you how spiritual you are. Not how many meetings you go to. Not how many gifts you have. Not how many sermons you preach. Not how many records you’ve made. Tell me what time you spend alone with God... and I’ll tell you how spiritual you are.”
Vance Havner
“The early Christians did not need a shot in the arm every Sunday to keep them going. They knew Jesus and they upset the world and worried the devil and gave wicked rulers insomnia and started something that jails couldn’t lock up, fire couldn’t burn, water couldn’t drown, swords couldn’t kill. This world has never been moved by cold, calculating brass hats but by fools, with their facts on fire.
You may belittle experience and speak of the dangers of emotion, but we are suffering today from a species of Christianity as dry as dust, as cold as ice, as pale as a corpse, and as dead as King Tut. We are suffering not from a lack of correct heads but of consumed hearts.”[3]
A 21st Century Believer:
We as a generation have allowed the devil to strip us of our spiritual luminosity, that efferfesence, that brightness that is so attractive to lost and dying men. No, it is worse than that, we have been his willing accomplice! We come home from work and bounce in front of the TV to “rest”. The whole time, our righteous soul is being vexed, and it is as if we had a knob on us that controlled the level of anointing we have. With each moment of this worldly soaking satan is permitted to turn down the brightness of our lamp. Then when the moment arises that the Lord would use us to be salt and light we like Samson of old arise, “And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.”[4] This is our time, this is the generation for which we must give account, if we don’t reach them who will?. The saints who have gone on cannot, there time is over; those yet born cannot, their time is not yet; no, it is to us that God has committed this sacred responsibility. Perhaps the greatest sin of this generation is that Holy Fire was available in copious amounts and instead of fanning the flame we were better at extinguishing it! God give us heaven sent, sin destroying, life changing, passion enflaming, knee bending, heart rending Holy Ghost fire!
Fire is an individual thing.
John the Baptist had fire all by himself in the wilderness. He didn’t need a choir to sing it up, he didn’t need a preacher to preach it down. He didn’t need a cassette tape from Fred the Flaming Evangelist, or a video from Tremendous Tom’s Testimony Time, or music CD from Sal the Singing Sensation, he didn’t need an outside source of fire, for he already had a roaring inferno on the inside. He didn’t need to be pushed, prodded, instructed, convinced, cajoled, admonished, or awakened. The fire was ever burning. Loneliness didn’t put it out. Hardship didn’t put it out. A period of long waiting didn’t cause it to wane in the least. Lack of ministry opportunities didn’t water it down. Financial suffering didn’t dim it. An obscure location didn’t stifle it, and he never had a mentor to stir it up. What’s your excuse? As long as you continue to hold on to one, you will never have the fire like you ought to. Fire is an individual thing, you don’t need to make excuses for yourself, that will never bring the fire. We need to repent for our lack of fire, and that we let things that shouldn’t have put out our fire. Didn’t he say, that nothing, nothing, nothing could ever separate us from the love of Christ? Isn’t that after all what the fire is? The love of Christ for us, and His love for the world burning in our chests? Isn’t that what it’s really all about?
We can’t blame our church, our fellowship, our pastor, or our situation for our lack of fire, the word shows us otherwise. Paul sang in prison after being maliciously beaten and whipped. Job blessed God after the death of all his children. Joseph walked in integrity after being almost murdered by his brothers, sold into slavery and falsely accused and imprisoned. Moses kept the fire when his church was split by insurrection and rebellion. David kept the fire when he was chased all over Israel by the demon possessed Saul. Steven kept the fire, even as Jewish trouble makers stoned him to death. Jeremiah kept the fire even though no one liked his preaching. At one point he tried to resign, but the fire shut up in his bones, shook him from his battle fatigue and stirred him anew, until at last he yielded to the fire and preached the word of God again.
4 Fires all believers should have ever burning:
1. The fire of love for God.
2. The fire of love for lost souls.
3. The fire of love for the word of God.
4. The fire of desire to walk in a way that is pleasing to God.
1. The fire of love for God
The first and foremost commandment is Mark 12:30 “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this [is] the first commandment.”
2. The fire of love for lost souls.
If Jesus is to be the firstborn of many brethren, (Rom. 8:29), and His passion was that souls my be saved, then ours ought to be so also. (John 3:16,17; Luke 19:10; Mt. 23:37)
3. The fire of love for the word of God.
We are to desire the sincere milk of the word, David said, “O, how I love thy law”, Psalm 119 is all about David’s passion and fire, and love for the word of God. He sets the example for all of us.
4. The fire of desire to walk in a way that is pleasing to God.
All true men and women of God have a passion to live in a way that is pleasing to God. When we veer from that path it brings us the keenest of sorrows, and remorse that we have not been faithful to Him who has been so faithful to us. David’s heart smote him when he disobeyed God, (1 Sam 24:5). The bible speaks very favorable of those who have a tender heart before God. Jesus also said that if we truly loved Him, we would keep His commandments.
Having considered all these things, we close by asking how is your fire doing? What can you do to improve it?:
You can stoke it up with prayer. Won’t you take time just now and ask God to stir up that which is within you.
You can add the accelerant of the anointed word. The bible is a flammable liquid, pour liberal and copious amounts on your soul. Get in a good book, read it, and then pray it.
You need to be marinated. In the book of Esther we read the following very interesting verse: Esther 2:12 Now when every maid’s turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women;) Esther was marinated for 6 months with oil of myrrh, and then 6 more months with sweet odours. She was soaked in sweet smelling things for a year. The fire of God shines clearest with those who have marinated in His presence. Time with God is crucial, the reason many have little flame is that they spend little time with God. Listen to tapes and CD’s, make the commitment and go to a conference.
Work at it, on a daily basis. The fire was commanded never to go out, do you think it just burned of itself? Can you imagine how much work it was to keep a fire going 24/7/365 ? Almost anyone can get a fire going, and can keep it going, though it is continual work, it is not difficult work. May God bless your spiritual fire.
[1]"HERALD OF HIS COMING" July 1997 Vol. 56 No. 7 (667) International Edition
[2]"Power Through Prayer," E. M. Bounds, chapter 15, Unction, The Mark of True Gospel Preaching.
[3]"The Best of Vance Havner," Fools, Facts, and Fire.
[4]"Passion Purity Power & Purpose," lessons from the life of John the Baptist by Maurice McCarthy
